Safety draw-bar adjuster.



B. 0. 000 & E. I. KELLY.

SAFETY DRAW BAR ADJUSTER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 29. l9l6.

Patented Jan. 9, 1917.

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' amend 01s UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BLAKE C. COOK AND EMMETT J. KELLY, 0F YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO.

SAFETY DRAW-BAR ADJUSTER.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, BLAKE C. Coon and EMMETT J .IKELLY, citizens of the United States, residing at Youngstown, in the county of Mahoning and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Draw-Bar Adjusters; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a safety drawbar adjuster, and has for one of its objects the provision of a device for shifting the drawbars of cars and the like for alining two adjacent drawbars to perfect the coupling operation without the necessity of the trainman or brakeman having to go between the cars. Another object is the provision of a device for shifting the drawbar laterally in either direction at either side of the end of the car. A further object of this invention is the provision of a drawbar adjuster which is simple in construction and cheap to manufacture, and which can be readily applied to the drawbars of any of the cars, engines,

13 of the brackets 12 may be secured to the and the like now in use.

These and other objects will more fully appear as the nature of the invention is more clearly understood from the following specification, the subject matter of the claim, and the views illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a bottom plan view of one end of a car showing the invention in operative position thereon- Fig. 2 is an end view on line 22 of, Fig. .1, partly in section, showing the manner of applying the invention to a car.

Referring to the drawings, wherein similar reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views, 1 denotes the bottom of a car, 2 the central beams, 3 the intermediate beams, 4 the side beams, 5 the end sill, upon the under side of which is the stirrup strap 6, upon which rides the drawbar 7 mounted upon the car Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 9, 1917.

Application filed May 29, 1916. Serial No. 100,735.

in the usual manner and provided at its outer end with the coupling 8, and 9 indicates the usual axles of the ordinary car trucks and provided with the wheels.

The longitudinal beams 2, 3, and 4 of the car are illustrated in the drawings as being formed of angle iron or steel for the sake of illustration, but the same may be 10 provided with the spaced angle arms 11 for securing the brackets 10 to the lower flanges of the beams 4 at points remote from the ends 'ofthe beams 4, and upon the intermediate beams 3 are the brackets 12 provided with the spaced angle arms 13 for engaging the lower flanges of the beams 3 'for securing the brackets 12 thereon at a point in proximity to the ends of the beams 3. The brackets 10 and their attaching arms 11 and the brackets 12 and their attaching 7 arms 13 are similarly constructed and secured to the beams 4 and 3 in any suitable manner but preferably in the manner shown in the drawings, however, the attaching arms 11 of the brackets 10 and the attaching arms sitioned remote from the ends of the beams 4, while the brackets 12 are positioned in proximity to the ends of the beams 3, whereby to position the brackets 12 in advance of the brackets 10 upon the car in order to provide for proper leverage of the levers to be hereinafter described.

Pivotally mounted upon the brackets 10 as at 14 are the outer levers 15 provided at their forward ends with the operating handles 16, and pivotally mounted as at 17 upon the brackets 12 are the inner levers 18. The outer levers 15 are pivotally mounted upon the outer brackets 10 upon the beams 4 at points in proximity to their rear ends subupon the beams 3 at points in proximity to their forward ends substantially one-third the distance of their lengths, whereby by so positioning the pivotal points of the levers and 18 the levers attain greater leverage power and at the same time the rear ends and the front ends of the levers 15 and 18 are positioned in transverse alinement with each other, the rear ends of the levers 15 and 18 are pivotally connectedtogether by the connecting bars 19, while the forward ends of the inner levers 18 are pivotally connected to one end of the operating connecting bars 2-0, the opposite ends of the operating connecting bars 20 are pivotally connected to the bolts 21 which project through the apertured cars 22 of the upper section 23 and the apertured cars 2 of the lower section 25 of the sectional collar which embraces the drawbar 7 at a point in proximity to the coupling 8 thereon, the sections 23 and 25 constituting the collar are firmly secured in operative position upon the drawbar 7 by the bolts 21.

Having described the construction and application of the invention, the operation of the device will be briefly described as follows IJ. iSSLlHllllg that the drawbar 7 of the cars and the levers 15 and 18 and the operating handles 16 have been moved from the positions shown in full lines in Fig. 1 to either side of the longitudinal medial lines of the cars to the respective positions shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, these movements, however, are not restrictive within the confines of the dotted lines the same being shown for the sake of illustration, which movements are occasioned by the uncoupling of the cars upon curved tracks, and it being desirous to shift the drawbars for placing the same in alinement with each other for coupling the cars together, as for instance when the same are on a straight track, the trainman may stand at either side of the cars at the ends thereof, and grasping one of the operating handles 16 at the same side of the cars will either force the operating handles 16 inwardly or either pull the same outwardly, which respective movements of the operating handles 16 will through the medium of the levers 15 and 18, their connecting bars 19 and the connecting operating bars 20 moves the drawbar 7 from the re spective positions shown in dotted lines to the respective positions shown in full lines for eifectin the true alinement of the draw bars 7 and their couplings 8 of the adjacent cars for facilitating the coupling together of the cars, and while the foregoing operation has been described for coupling cars upon a straight track which have been uncoupled while upon a curved track it is to be understood that the operation is to be reversed when coupling cars upon a curved track which have been uncoupled upon a straight track for thereby positioning the drawbars 7 and their couplings 8 in the direct line of impact between the cars being coupled;

From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention attains many advantages, first, from the fact that the ordinary drawbars in use weigh approximately five hundred pounds and that the average lateral play of the drawbars varies from 1 to 8 inches at the point where the sectional collar is secured to the drawbar, the couplings upon the drawbars range from 7 to 12 inches, hence the operating handles 16 are only required to be moved from t to 8 inches from one extreme point to the other, and by the specific manner of pivotally mounting the levers 15 and 18 upon the car body the same attain ehicient lever power as to only require the force of substantially five pounds exerted upon the operatinghandles 16 by the trainman, secondly, the trainman is not required to go between the cars for the pur pose of alining the drawbars thereof or use his foot for forcing the drawbars into alinement with each other as is necessary with the drawbars now in use and thereby endangering his life, and thirdly, by the construction and employment of the levers and their connecting bars with each other and the drawbar, the drawbar will be forced in the same direction that the operating handles are forced and thereby avoid any confusion on the part of the trainman as to the direction of movement of the drawbar.

While the invention has been described as being specifically applied to a railway car, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited or restricted in any manner to such application, but the same may be readily applied to locomotives, mine cars, automobiles, and automobile trucks and trailers therefor, with equal degree of effi ciency, and further, that minor variations and alte'ations may be made therein from time to time as deemed expedient and which will neither depart from the spirit of this invention nor the scope of the claim.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a device of the character described, the combination with a vehicle. and the drawbar and the coupler thereof, of levers pivotally mounted upon said vehicle in parallel relation to said drawbar and comprising an outer lever and an inner lever, the outer lever being pivotally mounted adjacent its rear end to provide a rear short arm and a forward longer arm, the inner lever being pivotally mounted adjacent its forward end to provide a short forward arm and a longer rear arm, a bar connecting the short arm of 5 for actuating the same whereby to adjust said outer lever with the long arm of said names to this specification in the presence inner lever, a bar connecting the sllioort arm of two subscribing witnesses.

of said inner lever with said draw ar and means upon the long arm of said outer lever g i said drawbar with a minimum amount of Witnesses: power. C. W. JOHNSON,

In testimony whereof We have signed our C. B, 0001:.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Washington,D 0.

Commissioner of Patents, 

